According to TSN he is big, strong and is a good skater. Perhaps he isn't the fastest but as the Twins demonstrated you can adjust for that. Even Hodgson seemed to pick up a step after attending some power skating lessons. Let Dave Gagner get him at his center for the summer and we'll see how well he turns out. He is only 18 if he hasn't made some strides with in two years then okay you can complain, but not before.

The real reason I sat through this for 3 and 1/2 hours was to see if anyone offered up something worthwhile for Luo. Then I believe it was Maguire who said the Canucks are working on signing Schneider first then the trade will take place...nah, I don't believe that either but apparently no one is biting and they are all grabbing straws. This will eventually lead to a realization than "just anyone" is simply not good enough. Stay tuned.

Hah, I remember when the Canucks announced their first pick, Patrick White. There was a few moments of silence as Bob McKenzie was shuffling his scouting reports in search of one Patrick White. He then proceeded to say how Nonis went off the board on this pick, and wasn't projected to even go in the first round.

Give me a fucking break. Brendan Fucking Gaunce? 3rd line centre? Try scraping and scratching to cling to a 4th line role. Cement blocks for feet. Scored 50 some-odd goals in midget, but 28 in OHL? Gimme a break. This guy will be lucky to get a career high of 10 in the NHL. Fucking write-off here. Hope you enjoy a career in Germany with Patrick White, Mr. Gaunce. Don't get fat on the schnitzel.

Lancer wrote:Hey, would love nothing better than for this kid to turn out to be a franchise player but you'd think he'd have more things advertised about him than size and character. At that part of the draft, why not swing for the fences and go for someone with more offensive potential even if with some other question marks. At that point of the draft everyone has bigger question marks than players picked earlier and this draft has more question marks than others, but why wouldn't the Canucks draft someone whose offensive skill and skating weren't the biggest question marks?

The Canucks have done that previously and now have smallish forwards in the system like Schroeder and Rodin who will hopefully be able to outscore their size disadvantages.

At some point you have to address the lack of size in your prospect pool though, and what better year to do it than when the player acknowledged beforehand as the best Canadian forward in the draft drops down to your spot?

If you read up on this player he may not be seen as a high end offensive player but he does have a pro shot, great vision, good hands in close and a knack for being in the right place at the right time - all key ingredients in being productive at the NHL level even if he never stickhandles through three defenders or anything like that.

Again, at this point why don't you pick somebody who can do one or two things really well than someone who has size but can do a number of things sorta well? You have to wonder why he dropped so low. He's not Russian, right?

Who cares? Players drop all the time for what turns out to be ridiculous reasons, in 2003 Ryan Getzlaf was the 5th-ranked North American skater and he fell all the way to 28th overall. This year Filip Forsberg dropped from probably the top four all the way to 11th, and Gaunce dropped from the mid teens or early 20s depending on who you ask to 26th.

This year I think a lot of people saw the draft as a bit of a crap shoot after the first few players and lots of picks seem consistent with that (Lindholm, Pouliot, Koekkoek, WIlson, Vasilevski, Schmalz and others were all taken way ahead of where many had them ranked).

And when some scouts are going off the board it means players on the board will slide, it's been a common trait of all of Mike Gillis' first round picks to not overthink things and just take the best player remaining - we got Hodgson because the Islanders took Bailey, we got Schroeder who slid all the way out of the top five or ten, we got Jensen who slid from the early 20s to the end of the first round and now we've got Gaunce.

SKYO wrote:Gillis mentioned they were trying to trade up to get Guance, they then had offers of other teams trying to the 26th overall, lots of scouts like his skill/character/size for this center.

Exactly. A solid pick at 26. A decent prospect, not at all a "project." A small step towards restocking the cupboard. They got who they wanted. Lets see how he develops in junior, hopefully plays in the WJC.

THN did not knock his skating at all and this is what they had to say about him:"Gaunce has all the earmarks of an elite prospect (...). Gaunce is a tantalizing prospect because a physically dominant center is such a coveted slot to fill in NHL lineups these days."

They also quoted one scout:"The prototypical big, strong center (...). He has all the ingredients and he can play the power game (...). That's the type of center most teams would like to build around."

Also: we all know GMs tend to say all the diplomatic and politically correct words right after picking "their guys", but... did you notice how Canucks.com had not one, but two pieces on Gaunce within minutes? Could it be a confirmation of some sort that they really liked him? I don't think they'd tell people to prepare long articles on, like, 26 guys from their list.

Lancer wrote:Every article I've seen on Gaunce says skating is an issue. This is 2012, not 2002, so if he can't skate what use is he?

He can skate. Gaunce just doesn't have a seperation gear or quick first-steps. Mike Richards' scouting report in his draft year read similarly.

Lancer wrote:Again, at this point why don't you pick somebody who can do one or two things really well than someone who has size but can do a number of things sorta well? You have to wonder why he dropped so low. He's not Russian, right?

Drop? Except for Mark Jankowski, what forwards drafted ahead of Gaunce were surprises? There are some that had Gaunce going in the top 20 but not everyone did. Most people had Yakupov, Galchenyuk, Forsberg, Grigorenko, Faksa, and Teravainen ahead of Gaunce. As for the other players such as Girgensons, Wilson, Hertl, and Laughton, I've seen draft guides and mock drafts that have Guance ranked/going after those guys. Maybe you're reading the wrong articles.

I'm also not sure what you mean by Guance doing a few things sorta well. ISS ranked Gaunce as the 2nd best defensive forward and 3rd best faceoff men in this year's draft. Clearly, you have no idea what you're talking about.

I dont know how anybody can knock this pick,unless you've seen him actually play. The scouts obviously like him, lets see how it pans out in 4 years.

Whats laughable is Burke's comments. He claims Morgan Reilly would have been his pick if they they had the 1st over-all. What a f..ing liar. Burke acts like he invented the best strategy for picking draft choices. I could maybe see skipping on Yakupov and taking Murray, but Reilly first, give your head a shake Burkie.

okcanuck wrote:I dont know how anybody can knock this pick,unless you've seen him actually play. The scouts obviously like him, lets see how it pans out in 4 years.

Whats laughable is Burke's comments. He claims Morgan Reilly would have been his pick if they they had the 1st over-all. What a f..ing liar. Burke acts like he invented the best strategy for picking draft choices. I could maybe see skipping on Yakupov and taking Murray, but Reilly first, give your head a shake Burkie.

Its fairly typical Burke though. He's always walking around with a hard-on throughout draft day pumping the tires of, not just the players picked, but his scouting staff and management group for the efforts. He's a showboater.

This is the only time of year he and the Leafs garner a tonne of attention, where he can be optimistic without the team following up something positive by getting walloped by the Islanders 6-1.

okcanuck wrote:I dont know how anybody can knock this pick,unless you've seen him actually play. The scouts obviously like him, lets see how it pans out in 4 years.

Whats laughable is Burke's comments. He claims Morgan Reilly would have been his pick if they they had the 1st over-all. What a f..ing liar. Burke acts like he invented the best strategy for picking draft choices. I could maybe see skipping on Yakupov and taking Murray, but Reilly first, give your head a shake Burkie.

It just tells you how much he holds the media, fans and the hockey world in utter contempt. To make a claim like that - which no one believes (please, he'd have taken Yakapov in a freaking second) is just a fuck you to everyone. In the end, he's the captain of a sinking ship, so, it's kind of pathetic to watch....

BladesofSteel wrote:So what do we know about LW Alexandre Mallet of Rimouski (QMJHL) outside of Vancouver taking him 57th overall?

Just looked him up, see link. He had a scoring outburst this year, he's 20, so maybe a late bloomer, ready for AHL, but also very gritty, can thrown them, see youtube clips of his fights in linked page. As always, who knows, but another gritty Center, and he's got some scoring touch.